Sachin Pilot Vs Ashok Gehlot: Scindia Exit Casts Its Shadow On Rajasthan

Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is reportedly beginning to face some heat from his deputy Sachin Pilot over Rajya Sabha nominations. The Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister has emphasised the need to nominate a Dalit candidate to the Rajya Sabha, while Chief Minister Gehlot is reportedly in favour of another candidate, Rajiv Arora, Rajasthan Congress vice president and businessman.

The Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot is safer in terms of numbers, in view of the fact that all 6 Bahujan Samaj party (BSP) MLAs joined the Congress in September 2019. However, the party leadership may not want to be complacent about things. The Congress high command may intervene between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin pilot soon, especially with reports of Congress MLAs being in touch with BJP.

Earlier, the Congress leadership had set up a coordination committee in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to iron out the differences between different groups. The committee failed to do its job in MP, as Scindia's revolt proves. In Rajasthan so far it has made little headway in trying to smooth the differences between Sachin pilot and his boss, Gehlot.

Ashok Gehlot had come in for criticism for his handling of the Kota hospital tragedy in which the lives of 107 infants were lost in January this year. The Ashok Gehlot administration faced a lot of flak from all sides for lack of proper facilities at the JK Lon Hospital in Kota.

Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot also took pot shots at Gehlot saying that there was no point in blaming past governments for the tragic turn of events. Pilot remarked that the government could have been more sensitive in its reaction and that accountability should be fixed for the deaths of infants.